NY Lockup: 5 Things About The Jail Where Epstein Died

NEW YORK, NY — How could it be that Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy financier and sex offender with ties to elite members of society like former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew of York and current President Donald Trump, could die of an apparent suicide in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York?

The FBI is investigating Epstein's death. Attorney General William Barr has said his death raises "some serious questions" that need to be answered. Barr said that in addition to the FBI investigation, the inspector general is opening a probe into the circumstances of Epstein's death.

Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell in a special housing unit at the jail.

Here's five things to know about the MCC Manhattan:

1) It's an administrative facility that's run by the federal Bureau of Prisons. According to the BOP, such facilities have special missions like "the detention of pretrial offenders; the treatment of inmates with serious or chronic medical problems; or the containment of extremely dangerous, violent, or escape-prone inmates." A total of 763 inmates are housed there, according to the most recent numbers from the facility's website.

2) Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the notoroious Mexican drug lord who was recently sentenced to life in prison was housed at the facility. At the sentencing hearing, Guzman testified for the first time to complain of the"cruel and inhumane" treatment he has received in solitary confinement at the Manhattan jail since his 2017 extradition, according to reports. El Chapo is now at a federal "supermax" prison in Colorado, according to online records.

3) Other high-profile inmates who have been kept at the facility include Bernie Madoff and the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef.

4) Advocates have expressed concern and condemned the conditions at the jail. Attorneys, inmates who have been locked up at the facility and other described the conditions to Gothamist in interviews. According to a 2018 report from the publication, inmates endured "filthy conditions, vermin infestations, substandard medical care, and violence and abuse at the hands of guards."

5) Epstein was in a cell in the jail's special housing unit, where "inmates are housed in the least restrictive setting necessary to ensure their own safety, as well as the safety of staff, other inmates, and the public." Inmates are separated from the general prison population in special housing units and are either housed alone or with other inmates, according to the BOP.